Question

When is the Sonos skill for Amazon Echo coming?


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I can only imagine that integration with the best voice command solution could only help sales of the world's best wireless home speaker system.

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It's a good thing you are in product development and NOT public relations. I was merely making a comment regarding Amazon Echo and how well it has been received. Again, I love my Sonos, but the voice recognition capabilities are being fast tracked. If Sonos slow rolls this as you indicate above they will miss a large portion of this market. They are uniquely positioned to corner this market because of their current product. If they allow Bose to develop this capability or Amazon to develop a comparable speaker and split this unique market they will unfortunately lose out in the end. I will remain a loyal Sonos customer because I have locked myself in with my previous purchases and I like the speaker. Not whining just commenting.
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First of all I love my Sonos speakers. I have the Play bar, bass, several play 1s and plan on buying a couple more play 5s soon. I have invested a few thousand dollars in my Sonos setup and Again I love them However, after purchasing an Amazon echo a few months ago my family has abandoned my Sonos system for the ease of use of the echo. While the sound quality is no where near that of the Sonos the ease of use of the echo seems to trump quality. I know it is sad but it is reality. I'm not a huge tech guy but Amazon has allowed others to write programs to support the Echo and it seems like Sonos is a natural fit. I know Sonos realizes this is the way of the future but I hope they don't delay and miss a golden opportunity to solidify their niche.
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You do realize that Google and Apple have announced plans to copy the Echo's abilities, and neither of those behemoths have delivered yet, either.

It takes many months to do market planning, design, development, manufacturing, etc. I guess most of the impatient whiners have never been involved in product development.


Look in the mirror chicks . . . the only whining on this thread is you with a health dose of condescension for good measure.

+1 for a Sonos skill for Echo. I would love it! I am holding off purchasing any more Sonos products without this. The future is rather uncertain right now. What if Amazon comes out with a sonos type product that integrates with Echo?
Userlevel 1
Good point. All the more reason for Sonos to keep their products relevant by integrating. I too am delaying Sonos expansion awaiting a new skill.
I just installed the latest Beta Software on my Sonos devices and now I can directly stream music from the Spotify app into Sonos (so _not_ using the Sonos app) ... this means that the API integration is currently being tested - and Echo integration cannot be that far away 🙂
I just installed 7.0 (Beta) the Spotify integration is slick. I hope the Alexa option comes to beta soon.
The CEO has announced that some form of voice control is a high priority. Other than that, you probably won't hear any details or a timeline until the public beta. Sonos just doesn't comment on roadmaps or timelines until they are almost ready to release.
Userlevel 6
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Jgatie is spot on. John MacFarlane, Sonos CEO, shared his views around, voice control and more.
SonosBuyr, I'd like to invite you to check his blog post here.
You do realize that Google and Apple have announced plans to copy the Echo's abilities, and neither of those behemoths have delivered yet, either.

It takes many months to do market planning, design, development, manufacturing, etc. I guess most of the impatient whiners have never been involved in product development.
Userlevel 3
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Here's the problem I see with Sonos and Echo. Sonos currently has no remote API; the controller must be on the local network with the Sonos devices. The Echo third-party skills API, however, requires remote connectivity -- it has no means to run locally in your network since it is based on AWS Lambdas. For the Echo to control Sonos, they'd need to do a special deal like they did with Philips Hue, and build support for Sonos directly into the Echo's firmware (you'll note that Hue on the Echo uses the local Hue API only). Thing is, I don't know if Amazon considers Sonos a benefit to Echo, or a competitor... Hue, on the other hand, is a market leader in 'smart' lighting and not a competitor to any of Amazon's products, so it makes sense they would do a special deal with them to implement the local Hue API.

The alternative is Sonos has to develop a remote API, which is no small undertaking in and of itself.
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Thank you!!!!!. I'm not a expert tech guy but I do understand your point. I was fairly certain this was a lot more complicated than I thought it was. I will wait patiently and continue to argue with my family about playing music on the inferior echo speakers. It almost hurts my ears to listen to the Echo speaker knowing Sonos speakers are available with a few easy clicks. BTW, I have Phillips hue hooked up to my Echo in several rooms throughout the house and it is amazing. Thanks again for the input CAW.
Music quality trumps convenience. I hooked up my turntable to my Play 5 simply because of the sound quality. I'm new to the Sonos club, but I won't not buy Sonos products simply because of lack of voice control. It'll get here soon enough.